Saturday, May 22, 2010

PRINCETON, N.J. — It was night in England on Jan. 12, just before his bedtime, when Jozy Altidore began to get the troubling news that an earthquake had struck Haiti, birthplace of his parents, home to more than two dozen relatives.

He had helped buy cellphones for his uncles and aunts and cousins, and they kept in daily contact through text messages. But the earthquake was devastating, and communication with many of his relatives was difficult. Some would remain out of touch for days.

“My mom was struggling for a very long time,” Altidore said of Gisele Altidore, who with Jozy’s father, Joseph, left Haiti in the mid-1970s for New Jersey to escape the authoritarian Duvalier government. “Fortunately, she heard from her brother; that was one of the best days of her life.”